Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Thoughts of a soon to be father

Now that we have been matched alot has changed. I no longer sleep. My mind is constantly somewhere in the next several years. I have conversations in my head with my son. I constantly think about what it means to be a dad. Fortunately, I don't worry too much about whether I will be a good dad. I have an amazing role model and mentor.

I remember, when I was small enough to fit there, cuddling up in the crook of my father as he was lying on his side on the floor watching tv. I was trying to lay there and watch tv just like he was. Its the first memory I have of me trying to be like him, but I am sure it isn't the first time I tried, and it certainly isnt the last.

I remember sitting in his office with him "helping" him fill out his expense reports. He spent a lot of time in memphis, and we would abbreviate memphis "MEM." My job was to right MEM, MEM, MEM, MEM across the top of the reports. At least thats the way I remember it. Honestly, I probably just sat there and talked about Mario Brothers while he did all of the work.

Speaking of it, I remember playing Mario Brothers with him all day on Christmas. We kept trying to figure out how long you could keep flower power. We had determined that you could use it for 3 fireballs. Then we learned that it just took 3 fireballs before we ran into something, that would of course rob us of our fire throwing abilities.

We played alot of sports. We would shoot hoops in the driveway. Play catch with a baseball for what seemed like hours. And my favorite... I would run a "down-out- down" route around a tree, and my dad would hit me with the perfect pass, just out of the reach of the defending tree's hands.

I thought he was crazy when he told me there was someone better for me... after Laura, after Jackie, after a different Laura, and after Allison. He was right. He's just about always right, I think I get that from him.

He has made the perfect transition from a authoritative figure in my life to a wise counsel. He is an affluent businessman, loving husband, and an amazing dad. I couldn't ask for a better role model as my child is on his way. I can only hope I can be half the dad to my son, that he was to me.